Currently available biofuel processes have cost and efficiency limitations. Fermentation-based processes for alcohols from non-sugar portions of the biomass such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are not cost-effective (1). The biomass to liquid processes using biomass gasification/Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process (BTL process) is relatively capital intensive and generally requires large-scale plants. The fast-pyrolysis processes provide efficient (e.g., ˜75%) and relatively low cost methods to produce bio-oil (2) and there are several reactor designs available (3). However, the bio-oil from a fast-pyrolysis has extremely high oxygen contents (e.g., ˜35-40 wt %) and its energy content is only half of petroleum and similar to that of the original biomass (e.g., ˜17 MJ/kg). Furthermore, bio-oils do not easily blend with petroleum products. This necessitates the subsequent upgrading of this bio-oil by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) using H2 in the presence of a catalyst (1, 4, 5). The bio-oils tend to polymerize and condense with time during shipment and storage and are known to cause coking and gum formation in the HDO reactor and associated lines (3, 6). To overcome these problems, fixed-bed pyrolysis in presence of pure H2 and sulfided catalysts (FeS, Ni—Co or Co—Mo on γ-Al2O3) has been proposed (7, 8). However, all such hydropyrolysis studies have been conducted in fixed bed mode and are inadequate for providing the technical information needed for the design of a commercial circulating or fluidized bed fast-hydropyrolysis reactor.